Did a rumor about Kash Patel ordering a SWAT raid on three Pentagon officials, and the existence of surveillance footage capturing a four-star general shredding documents, originate with reliable news sources? No, that's not true: The story originated in a TikTok video that did not offer any sources or evidence. Neither Patel's X accounts nor news websites indexed by Google News mentioned any such raids even though the video claimed there was a livestream of the operation that showed Patel giving a quote about "regime change."
The first mention of the rumor seems to be from a video (archived here) uploaded to TikTok on February 22, 2025, with a description that read "FBI Director Declares War on 'Deep State' Hours After Taking Office." It featured a montage of photos with a voiceover that said:
'Deep State Hit List' sparks midnight manhunt as FBI director goes rogue.
Six hours into his tenure FBI director Kash Patel deployed swat teams to raid the homes of three Pentagon officials named in his explosive Deep State Eradication Protocol.
Surveillance footage captures a four star general shredding documents at 2:17 am before attempting to flee via private jet to Dubai.
'This isn't cleanup -- It's regime change' Patel declared during a livestream 3am operation targeting a CIA safe house in Virginia, where agents reportedly seized servers linked to encrypted White House communications.
The list allegedly implicates officials accused of manipulating COVID origins intelligence and sabotaging 2020 election litigation.
Leaked flight logs reveal 11 D.C. staffers urgently relocating to non extradition countries.
The White House declined to confirm whether president Biden is named in the dossier fueling speculation of high level complicity.
Breaking 9:15 pm ET
Two former intelligence chiefs boarded a yacht near Malta hours before Interpol issued red notices.
Is this constitutional accountability or a dangerous power grab? Sound off below.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Feb 25 16:43:15 2025 UTC)
@user9327349417528 FBI Director Declares War on "Deep State" Hours After Taking Office#breakingnews #tiktok #foryou #fbi #police #america ♬ original sound - Journalism11
The story was sparse on verifiable details, completely omitting the names of the "general," the "D.C. staffers" or the "intelligence chiefs." It also did not feature the alleged "leaked flight logs" or any of the "surveillance footage." Also lacking was an explanation why a TikTok account named "@user9327349417528" would have access to such information.
In the three days since the video was posted, the FBI website has issued no press releases mentioning these raids (archived here) nor has Kash Patel mentioned them on his personal X account (archived here) or his official FBI Director account (archived here).
A Google News search for news stories mentioning "Kash Patel" "cleanup" and "regime change" did not return any news articles (archived here) mentioning any such raid.
When Lead Stories reached out the Pentagon to inquire if any of their four-star generals were missing, they referred us to the FBI. This story will be updated if we receive a reply to our inquiries to the FBI.
